Early Beginnings
by Jal'ier
Summary: Jim Moriarty, a teen being forced to sit through a boring play, suddenly finds things interesting when someone at the show gets killed. But who's behind it? If Jim and Sebastian met as teens. MoraMori if you want it to be but it doesn't have to be. Complete with 6 total chapters!
1. Chapter 1: Opportunity

Dull.

The dark-haired teen sat back in the velvet seat on a balcony of the theater. He sighed. Why are plays so boring? When his parents had said it was a murder mystery, he thought it might just be worth seeing. But no. He had long since figured out who the killer was, and desperately wishing he had brought some form of weapon. If he couldn't enjoy the show, he could at least leave his mark, right? No again. The stupid security guards had disarmed him.

Another sigh. The only thing he had to look forward to was laughing at the shouts of surprise when the dummy in a noose, which was not hidden very well on top of one of the speakers, dropped over the audience. There it went…

"Hm?" the previously uninterested teen sat up in surprise. It wasn't a dummy. It was a real body!

The audience started in surprise then started screaming and fainting when the very real blood dripped on them. The ushers tried to calm everyone down but were rather shaken themselves. Most couldn't take their eyes off the hanged figure.

"Jim, is this your doing?" the boy's dad turned on him.

He wished. No, it was surprisingly not an act of the young James Moriarty. But he was sure as hell going to find out who did it. He hopped out of his seat and dashed off the balcony they were sitting in. He quickly found the door backstage and pushed through the panicked people until he found the dummy that was supposed to come down in the noose. He was on the right track.

It only took a few seconds and a bit of reasoning to find the criminal hiding on the sidelines trying to stifle a laugh. Jim looked him over. It was a boy, almost a foot taller than Jim but no more than a year's age difference.

Jim started applauding slowly and the other boy's blue eyes snapped to him instantly and gave him a cold, calculating stare.

"Who are you?" the blond growled. "What do you want?"

The smaller boy flashed a sly smile. "Me? I'm just a spectator. Here to congratulate you for a wonderful show." His dark eyes sparkled. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," the other replied, unsure of this stranger's intentions.

"However, I think it would've been even more effective had you left the man alive."

"Well you can't have everything. Leaving him alive would've made it too difficult to get him to drop at the right moment. Had to pick one."

"True." A small, pale hand stuck out in the space between them. "Jim."

It was clasped firmly by a rough, tan hand. "Sebastian."

"Sebastian, I'm never one to give up an opportunity, especially one so ceremoniously dropped from the sky." He snickered at his own pun. "I think I'd like to see you again."

"You mean work together?"

"Perhaps. Interested?"

"Perhaps."

Jim smiled again and threw a slip of paper at the other boy's feet. Sebastian hesitated before leaning over to pick it up. When he stood again, the small boy was gone. He looked at the paper. It had a phone number on it, and the name "Jim Moriarty." He shook his head and muttered, "What a weirdo," but folded the paper carefully and stuck it in his pocket.

**A/N: Originally just going to post this part, but I do have more written. What do you think?**


	2. Chapter 2: Escape

**A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews. Here's the next part! Sorry it's a bit shorter. I promise the next one is longer… (Also apologies if you're offended by cursing. But really how can you have these two without it?)  
**

"Stay away from me, you sick bastard!"

A plastic plate clanged against the wall, narrowly missing the blond head it was aimed at. Sebastian rolled his eyes but grabbed his bags, seeing that a large knife was next.

The woman kept shouting at him. "I heard all about what happened at the theater. I know it was you! You may have cleaned up nicely after yourself, but I know and I don't want you anywhere near my kids or me. You're mental! I should've had you institutionalized long ago!"

He stormed out of the house, bags strapped securely to his back, and made a run for it as the flashing lights and sirens approached from down the street. Luckily he knew the neighborhood well, and he took various shortcuts until he felt he was safe enough to stop. He pulled out his wallet to check how much money he had, and found a folded strip of paper with a name and a number on it. He remembered when he got it just a few days ago.

_Should I?_ Sebastian thought. _I wonder…_

After dialing the number, he lifted the phone tentatively to his ear.

"Hi, hi!" sang a voice with Irish in it. "Who are you?"

"It's Sebastian—"

"SEBBY!"

He winced and turned down the volume on his phone a bit. "I prefer Sebastian or Seb."

"What do you want?" Jim's tone was suddenly not so pleasant.

Now that he thought about it, why had he called? What did he expect to gain from contacting a boy he just met? But at the moment he didn't have anyone else…

"Okay," the voice from his phone interrupted his thoughts. "Tell me what happened."

"My aunt kicked me out." The words were out before he could stop them.

There was a pause.

"Jim?"

"Did you want to come over?" It wasn't an invitation.

"No. Look. I don't know why I called. I just left my aunt's house and I found your number in my wallet and maybe it's because I have no one else to contact but before I knew what I was doing I had already dialed. So, there. I'm going to hang up now, and you can keep doing whatever you're doing and forget this happened, yeah?"

Another pause. Sebastian's thumb hovered over the "end call" button when Jim spoke. "109 S. Winchester Ave."

Jim hung up.

Sebastian blinked at his phone before pocketing it and his wallet, re-folding Jim's number and placing it in his jacket pocket. He started walking. This would be interesting.


	3. Chapter 3: Start

**A/N: In response to someone's comment about the story getting darker, I'm sorry to say it won't get that dark. It was mostly written as a "what if they met in their teens" and thought up in an attempt to beat the typical, "high-school-set" scenario. If I ever decide to write a story about how I think they met as adults, I can promise it would get darker. :) Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy what I've written and thanks for the reviews.  
**

South Winchester Ave. was lined with nearly identical, two-story houses. As soon as Sebastian found 109, he knew he had the right place. Sheets covered the two upstairs windows, one's glass was shattered and the other looked like something had exploded it from the inside.

There was something off about the house. Just like there was something off about Jim.

Sebastian approached the house, hesitating before pressing the doorbell. He jumped in surprise as Jim's voice rang out: "GO AWAY!"

The tall boy stared then turned to leave when the door flung open and Jim grinned at him. "Hi, hi!"

"Sorry, I was just leaving," Sebastian said, extremely confused.

"Hm?" He tilted his head then his dark eyes widened a bit as he realized. "Oh, the doorbell! Hehe sorry, I did that to drive away solicitors and pretty much everyone else. I figure anyone who I actually want to see will either ignore the bell or knock, already knowing what it sounds like."

"Ah."

Jim eyed him for a minute then walked back into the house, leaving the front door wide open. Sebastian figured this was as close to an invitation as he was getting, so he followed the smaller boy in, closing the door behind him.

Walking through the house, Sebastian took note of how normal it looked. The furniture was typical of the neighborhood, but not the resident. There were even photos scattered about the tables and mantle over the fireplace, none of which contained Jim. Instead the faces smiling at Sebastian from their frames were of a man and a woman and a younger boy, who had the same dark hair only much neater, and the same brown eyes only without the hints of insanity in them.

"Do you live here alone?" Sebastian asked.

The smaller boy stopped short and looked at him impassively. "I don't live here." He looked around with distaste, then gestured toward the staircase they were approaching. "I live up there."

Seb followed him upstairs and was met with a sight much more believable to be the living space of Jim Moriarty. The entire upstairs floor had been remodeled (rather crudely) into a flat. It was more or less one room, separated into a bedroom, living room, and office. There was even a bathroom. The only thing missing were the kitchen and dining areas, leaving Sebastian to guess that meal times were the only times Jim saw the rest of his family.

"Nice place you got," he commented, looking around. It was a rather organized space, though there were a few corners of the place he would rather not spend too much time looking at for fear of identifying everything that was there.

Jim leaned on the railing on the landing and looked him over as though wondering if he should believe the statement or not. "Thanks," he finally said, though without enthusiasm. Then he added, "Don't just drop your bag anywhere. You can put it on the table."

"Right." Sebastian walked over to the space taken up by a couch, coffee table and telly. He placed his backpack on the low surface, too worried about overstepping some sort of boundary to sit down.

The other boy was also unsure what to do. It wasn't every day you just invited strangers over to your house, after all. Should he invite Seb to stay the night? The week? Jim had no idea. Though he wasn't necessarily afraid of scaring the strange kid away—if Sebastian couldn't handle Jim's personality then the worse for him—but the entire situation was just weird. And not even the sort of weird he was used to. So, without anything else to do, he placed himself at his desk. "Have a seat."

When Jim sat down in his office chair, he became a more intimidating figure. Sebastian wasn't sure how such a lanky, teenage boy could make him feel uneasy, but he did. He sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk, wondering why it was even there. "Do you…have a business?" he asked.

"I occasionally have to have meetings with people, such as my landlords, and therefore need a place to hold these meetings."

"Your landlords," Sebastian echoed. "Aren't they your family?"

Jim's dark eyes seemed to grow darker, colder. "I don't have a family."

Sebastian made a noise something like the cross between a snort and a scoff. "I know what you mean. My parents dumped me on my aunt, but I never considered her a relation and she never considered me a third child or anything like that. She hated me. The feeling was mutual."

"If you're looking for sympathy, look elsewhere." Jim sat forward in his seat, gazing at Sebastian calmly but intensely. "I'm not a listener and we're certainly not going to talk through your problems. Don't expect me to be open either."

"Right." Seb blinked once or twice. "Sorry. Just trying to make conversation." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "I'm not here for sympathy," he said after a moment. "I'm actually not sure why I'm here at all but it's certainly not for a therapy session. Now that I'm out of my aunt's house, I think I need a job. Or just a purpose. Pulling stunts like I did at the theatre is fun and all but it isn't going to keep me alive."

"Is that so." A grin that can only be compared to that of the Cheshire Cat spread across Jim's face. "I have turned my thoughts occasionally to the events of that day. While it may have seemed just a strange meeting to you, I saw an opportunity."

"What sort of opportunity?" Sebastian asked, finding it easier to hold the strange boy's gaze the more time he spent under it.

"An opportunity to escape this hellhole. Interested?"

"Don't waste my time with questions you already know the answer to."

"Aggressive. I like it."


	4. Chapter 4: Plans

**A/N: Chapter 4, yay! Hope you all are still enjoying it. Thanks for reading. :)  
**

"Questions?"

Sebastian didn't take long to think it over. It was an extremely simple plan of just packing up and leaving, moving into a flat with fake IDs. The only reason Jim hadn't done it before was that he looked too young, a problem solved by Seb's impressive presence. "Money," he said. "Where are we going to get the money for this?" It was a question but sounded more like a statement.

Jim leaned back in his chair. "The people who reside downstairs are rich." Then he corrected, "Were."

"You stole from them?" Seb's eyebrows raised a bit. "And they still let you live here?

"Well it's not as if they know. Yet. The statements they get from the bank say it's all still there, when in fact I have been in control of it for the past two years. They will find out, but by then we'll have departed."

"Will they know it was you?" asked Sebastian.

"The question isn't 'Will they know,' but 'What will they do about it?'"

"Okay, what will they do about it?"

Jim shrugged. "Doesn't matter. They get in the way, you take care of them."

"Kill them?" His eyebrows went a little higher. What was he, a contract killer?

Jim rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, "No, Sebastian, bake them a cake and do their laundry."

"Right, sorry." Seb looked down. "But won't that attract the police's attention?"

"Oh they'll have a bit more than that to worry about soon enough." There was that malicious smile again.

"Care to let me in on that?"

Jim instantly closed off, his face an emotionless mask with an air of coldness. "No."

"Jim, if we're going to be partners on this, you—"

"Partners!" A deranged cackle came from Jim's throat, making him sound inhuman. Maybe he was.

"Are we not partners?" Sebastian asked warily. Just as he was getting comfortable, now he was just as on-edge as when he had first met Jim.

The boy in question shook his head slowly like a disappointed teacher whose student just asked an extremely dumb question like, "Does the Earth orbit the Sun?" Jim let out a sigh before speaking. "The word 'partners' implies an equal amount of power, status and importance," he said. "None of which apply here, I'm afraid. You must remember who devised this plan, funded it, will set it in motion. Basically—" he paused for emphasis—"remember your place."

Sebastian bit his lip to stop from shouting and calling him rude names. Instead, he thought the situation over. There was obviously a screw loose in Jim. He had the mind of a genius, the air of a dictator, the wealth of nobility, but also the mental state of an entire institution of crazies all in one. Though it did scare Seb, it also intrigued him. Somehow in his mind this fact of Jim's insanity was turned from a 'but' into an 'and'. Curious.

"Well?" Jim's impatient voice interrupted Seb's thoughts. "Can you handle that or will it be a problem?"

He took a breath before asking, "Does this mean I have to call you 'sir' all the time?"

Jim's smile was positively wicked. And it thrilled Seb. "Yes," the smaller boy said. "Absolutely."


	5. Chapter 5: Familiarity

Jim had already picked out the flat he wanted. It was small and cheap, not in the best neighborhood. Unless you're aiming to start a criminal business, that is. They carried out his plan without much trouble, except perhaps when Jim's younger brother came home early from a friend's house and tried to stop them. Interestingly enough, he seemed to like his brother and wanted to go with them. When it was made clear he couldn't come, he threatened to tattle on them, but one look from Jim shut him up. Sebastian couldn't blame the kid—it was the look that would become one of the last things anyone saw if they didn't do as they were told. Because James Moriarty always got what he wanted. This was a rule Sebastian would learn to live by and help enforce.

The funds they had lifted off the Moriartys was enough to support a four-person family for the rest of their lives, so it was certainly enough to keep two low-maintenance teens going for a while. Except Jim wasn't so very low-maintenance like Sebastian, but he would deal with pretending to be so they could focus on getting their business running first. He would have plenty of time to allow himself luxury when he proved himself worthy.

While Jim already had a few reliable contacts, most of the criminal world refused to take the scrawny teen seriously. But that was all about to change. He grinned gleefully at his new sniper. He didn't exactly trust the boy yet—it would take quite a bit for him to go so far as taking Sebastian into his confidence. But he did trust his own judgment, and that was telling him this was a good investment. Taking Seb in during such an early stage of his career was better than trying to find someone later on. Not only would having him send the message that Jim meant business, but once he was a king among criminals as he wanted to become, it would be even harder to find someone he could trust. It would take some time to get his name out there, and having Sebastian there from the start will give him the sense that he's helped build up the business, and therefore make him more loyal to Jim. Ordinary people were funny like that.

Sticking to smaller jobs until they had gathered more experience and slowly spreading word around about their presence, Jim and Sebastian took the time to get to know each other. They didn't exactly sit and talk about their feelings—that would be ridiculous. What they did was rather more interesting. The two of them spent every spare moment trying to annoy the hell out of the other. Through this they got a feel for each other's boundaries and vices.

Sebastian Moran was a rather more complicated person than Jim had first estimated. He was easily bothered, and sometimes got irrational when in a fit of rage. Outside of anger, he was extremely skilled in controlling his emotions, and he was even able to contain himself when pissed off. One thing that was always present was his aggression. From carrying out Jim's orders to spreading butter on toast, he did it with a gruff air and perhaps a bit more force than necessary. He also had to be either brave or stupid, and while at first it may seem to be the latter, Jim had the impression it wasn't. Either way, Sebastian wasn't the type to just comply with being bossed around. When it came to work, he was obedient and sometimes even shy around Jim out of fear of messing up the job. But back in their flat, he wouldn't stand for being pushed around. Jim would threaten death on him and call him rude names, but Seb was just as stubborn as his young employer. In secret, Jim actually admired this quality, and this sort of respect would only grow over time.

James Moriarty was a rather more simple person than Sebastian had first estimated. That wasn't to say he wasn't as complicated as a schizophrenic, but it wasn't as bad as Seb had first imagined. Something about the young genius made sense to Sebastian. It wasn't as though he was quite as mental as the strange boy, but he discovered that the more he was around him, the more he could predict his mood swings. Sometimes he could use a minute detail as a hint of what to expect from the little criminal, but more often it was like an instinct as subtle as the smell of the air that day. He found that there was usually method in Jim's madness.

**A/N: If anyone knows what the last sentence is a reference to, you get...my congratulations for knowing! Or how about the next chapter in advance, via private message? ;)**

**Unfortunately the next chapter will be the last. :( Thanks for reading this far! I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. :)**


	6. Chapter 6: Change

Over time, Jim and Sebastian's relationship thrived. The latter, though he'd never be stupid enough to admit it to the other, liked to entertain the idea that they were more business partners than employer and employee, that Jim couldn't live without him just as he couldn't live without Jim. But that was just a fantasy, something that happened only if he closed his eyes and thought against reality. In the real world, years have passed and Sebastian still wasn't much more than another of Jim's weapons. Sure, Jim liked him, maybe even had a soft spot for him. But if the there came a time that Sebastian was useless or, should things take a turn for the worse, a burden to Jim, he didn't doubt that he would immediately be cut loose and taken down. Seb had come to terms with this a while ago, grown out of his fear of death as he grew out of his teens. He made sure he expected as much to happen so it wouldn't faze him if and when it did.

However, Jim blatantly ignoring him to pursue a new interest? That, Sebastian hadn't been prepared for.

"I'm back, Jim," he said as he closed the door to their temporary flat behind him. They moved frequently to avoid long-term scrutiny and suspicion as well as being found. He started unpacking his weapon. "I got that video you wanted me to rent. Sorry it took a bit longer than I thought, I didn't realize the Royal Opera House was so far from the video store. Though maybe it would have been closer if you weren't so damn picky about things like where you rent DVDs from."

Jim didn't acknowledge his presence, staying curled up in his armchair with his eyes glued to his laptop.

Sebastian, curious what required so much of his attention, walked behind him as casually as he could to see. But before he could glimpse more than that it was a picture, the laptop's lid was closed and he was met instead with Jim's scrutinizing stare. "No need to look so suspicious, boss," he said, calmly meeting his eyes. "I'll leave if that's what you want, you know that."

"Then go ahead." Jim's voice was as unfeeling as his gaze.

Though it worried Sebastian, he obediently turned and left the flat immediately.

When he returned a few minutes later at the request of a text from Jim, he found the young man's attitude had changed significantly.

"Come along, Sebby," Jim called from where he was pulling on the jacket of his new suit.

"Where are we going?" It went against Sebastian's instincts to question Jim, especially when he would know the answer sooner or later, but days of getting the cold shoulder had made him impatient.

Jim rewarded him with a look Seb hadn't seen in a while, one that glinted with eager anticipation. "I'm going to show you what I've been working on."

Excited by this news that he was finally going to be let into Jim's confidence, Sebastian quickly followed him out of the building and into a cab. They soon arrived at a café where they took a table with a good view but was out of immediate sight. Ordering two coffees, the two of them sat and waited. And waited. And waited.

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at Jim, but Jim was looking at his watch. That's when he heard the sirens. A police car approached and stopped on the street by the café. Sebastian froze.

Jim, on the other hand, was the picture of confident calm, even disappointment. "That took longer than expected."

"You knew a Yarder would show up?" Sebastian tried not to sound annoyed, though it didn't work too well. He didn't like the way Jim sometimes seemed to dance in front of the police, daring them to see through his disguise as an innocent citizen.

"Of course I did, Sebastian, don't be ridiculous." Jim smirked. "Not to worry, though, they're not here to arrest anyone."

"There's a crime scene nearby?"

Jim shook his head. "They just came from one. Can you guess where?"

Sebastian started to catch on. "The Royal Opera House. That job was part of this plan you've been absorbed in?"

"Not necessarily," he said. "It was more like a present. But it's as good a time as any to introduce you."

"Introduce who?"

"Have the police gone?"

Sebastian looked out the window as the police car drove away. "Just left." He was about to ask what he was waiting for when a cab pulled up where the police had just been parked. A tall figure in a long, dark coat swept into the cab and closed the door behind him. Sebastian glanced at Jim and asked, "Who is that?"

"Sherlock Holmes, calls himself a consulting detective."

The man in question turned to peer out the window of the cab, giving Sebastian a full view of his face. He seemed less to be actually looking out the window and more to be deep in thought and only staring out at the world because it happened to be in his line of view. Jim sipped his coffee and watched Sebastian watching Sherlock, until the cab pulled away. At that, Jim stood and left the cafe. Sebastian left a polite tip and followed in time to join Jim in a cab he had grabbed.

"There's no such thing," he said when he slid in next to Jim.

"Sorry?" Jim raised an eyebrow at him.

"His occupation, a consulting detective? There is no such thing."

Jim gave him a sly grin. "Precisely."

Sebastian was about to ask but changed his question at the last minute. "Where are we headed now?"

"St. Bart's. I've got an interview for a job in the IT department."

**A/N: And that's the end of our story. Thanks so much for reading, and responding. :)  
**


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